Leader Of The (Mid) Pack

All right then, time to get this off Page 3 of the logs, however temporarily!

Fri 26/1 - Rest

Sat 27/1 - 3.62 miles @8:54/mi

As I'd a full day of college in store, followed by a trip to Croke Park, it had to be a local pre dawn start. Very breezy for two clockwise Carpenterstown loops.

Sun 28/1 - 3.53 miles @8:11/mi

Bit quicker for another early start, as family stuff was scheduled in the evening. This time I kept it to laps of Tír na nÓg. 6 in total, with the wind behind me on the long side of the triangle but right in my face on the straight. I got some strides in on the last two laps, just to change things up a bit.

A Sunday college seminar, which didn't finish until 4, meant I completely missed out on all the fun of the Raheny fair. We didn't have a great club representation, numbers wise, but those that did travel (including AMK) ran very well - we had the 3rd female overall. In addition, the DCM 2017 Graduates continue to go from strength to strength. I'd say there's tons of potential there which is far from being realised, but they're certainly headed in the right direction.

Mon 29/1 - 3.6 miles @7:59/mi

This might just be the fastest I've ever run twice around the Carpenterstown loop. I wasn't really in the mood beforehand, with tracky bottoms finishing off a not very athletic looking ensemble. However, I got into a decent rhythm after a while, and decided to just stick with it.

Tue 30/1 - Work/college

Wed 31/1 - 4.65 miles @8:15/mi

A bit of windchill at play here! Early on I had a long downhill from Clonsilla to the N3 bridge, but then I'd to work into the wind on Clonsilla Road, and also from Tesco back to Coolmine. Happy enough with this one.

January Review

Considering I only ran around 65 miles in the entire month, I can only look positively on any improvements, and not worry too much about apparent regression.

Due to not keeping my aging frame properly stretched in the lead up, the New Year's Day parkrun double turned out to be much harder work than it should have been. With that problem rectified somewhat, I was able to return to the Dublin Masters XC, and surprise myself with an improvement on last year's position. The next Sunday I tackled the Leinster Masters, with a worse percentage than last year, although maybe the overall standard was higher in Dunboyne than in St Anne's.

I might have had my best performance so far this year in the BHAA Eir XC. In at times bottomless ground, I stayed in the game over 5 miles in the rain, and finished ahead of a few lads I hadn't expected to get near, let alone scalp. Confidence boosted, I went to Abbotstown for my first ever indoor racing experience. It didn't go quite as planned, as I finished 10th of 12, but I really enjoyed the evening, and I'll be back there again. Overall, not a bad month's work given the circumstances, and looking forward to lots of improvement once the exams are over.

Next

BHAA Garda XC this Saturday. One of my best performances of 2017 was in this race. I could have gone to Trim instead, but early on I wisely decided that even with a very weak 10 mile PB (74:13), with such low mileage in the bag it would have been foolish to take it on this year. For the same reason, I might have to let the Brian Boru slide as well, but for that one we'll see how we are nearer the time. Thanks for reading! J.

Thu 1/2 - 5.42 miles @8:05/mi

I decided to give the above suggestion from AMK a try, covering three Carpenterstown loops instead of the usual two. Chilly enough, but not as cold or as windy as the day before. Job done.

Fri 2/2 - Rest

Sat 3/2 - BHAA Garda XC, Phoenix Park

Pre Race

This was my fourth year in a row lining up in this 4 miler, the flagship event of the BHAA cross country calendar. In spite of little training, I was quietly confident that I could pull something out of the bag, and improve on last year.

Early arrival meant I could sit back and chill before my teammates arrived. About 10:15 or so, I headed off for a warmup with G, stopping to throw on the spikes, which I'd left in the car, parked at the bottom of the hill. The wind was behind us on the long exposed straight, the opposite to the way it normally blows. However, this meant that it would be in our faces coming up the hill from the bottom of the Khyber. St Annes parkrun were out in force yesterday, and pre race I caught up with Murph_D, FBOT and RedRunner, as well as meeting Duanington for the first time. M was suitably impressed with my "MSB runners" - "Do ye lend them to each other for the different races" :pac:

Lap 1

I got caught a long way back at the start, in spite of my best intentions. A clubmate was running as well, and slow as we were going early on, when I passed he chose not to follow. About halfway between the finish and the Magazine Fort, I was working my way through the field when D appeared on the radar. From the fort downhill was quite sticky and slippy, but I had a nice line through it, and passed D and a number of others coming up the hill. This was followed by a fast and slippy downhill to the grass alongside the Khyber Road, and then a short but steep little climb back to the start/finish straight to complete the lap.

Lap 2

I suspect I eased off a bit at the start of the first long lap, as not only did D get back ahead of me, one or two others appeared that I thought I'd shaken off. Time to get back out of my comfort zone! I passed D once more before the fort, and then caught up to the guy who finished just behind me in the previous race (Eir) after he fell early on. It's fair to say I had him targeted in this one, and a nice burst at the bottom of the hill kept me in front. D and yer man were still getting shouts behind me, as we went down the hill for the second time. The long lap diverged from the short with a steep little hill to the side of the Khyber, before we made our way around the trees to the start/finish straight. Myself, a lad from Revenue, and another guy were passing each other a bit through here.

Lap 3

RANT: Lads running on the path in a XC, and then cutting corners. Chap ahead of me in a Lord Mayor's 5 Alive top was the biggest culprit I spotted yesterday, so much so that someone called him out.

At this stage, a girl had gone ahead of me, but I passed her back at the start of the hill. It was very heavy and slippy at this stage, and Revenue and Maynooth both passed me back approaching the top, as I almost came to a standstill between trying to combining managing my pain with finding the best racing line.

The downhill was extremely slippy heading down it for the last time (the women had gone it down it twice before us). I kept my footing as best I could, but started to lose a bit of form in the little valley, and the girl passed me going up the short hill to the roadside.

Right. Only half a mile left. Maybe less. 3 1/2 minutes tops. Wind is behind me when I get around the sharp left hander. No more slop to negotiate.

"He who dares, wins. He who hesitates....don't"

I tried going up through the gears. It was actually working. Within about 50 metres of cresting the hill, I passed the girl and didn't see her again. I think I passed somebody else too, before taking out the lad I'd been trading places with for a while, just after the sharp left. Still more places to make up. Revenue was up ahead, as well as another guy who seemed to be coming back to us. I picked up a bit more momentum on the downslope. As I approached them, I heard one say to the other - "400 to go". With the two of them distracted, I found another gear, and that was the pair of them gone as well.

There was a fella from Bristol Myers Squibb in the distance, who looked like he was fading fast. COME ON! ONE MORE PLACE! 15, 20 SECONDS! MOVE!! I thought I might catch him too, but he found an extra gear in the last 50 metres to just about hold me off.

Delighted with my run as I got my breath back. Got a shout from M as I waited in the funnel. Finished ahead of my clubmate who I expected would beat me, and got ahead of D for the first time in quite a while, so some bragging rights too

Last year: 68/136
This year: 78/203

Percentage wise, that's a significant improvement. I also got a course PB, despite the ground being a lot heavier than the three previous years. It also transpired that I was third scorer, enough to give our team first place in Class B. A quick mile cooldown brought it to 7.5 miles for the day, although I had to skip the brack and muffins as we were away soon afterwards. That was a trip to Omagh, to see the Dubs take down Tyrone in their own back yard, despite being down a man for a lot of the second half.

A few beers when we got home, to round off what was a very good day.

Sun 4/2 - 5.49 miles @7:45/mi

First time getting out for the Sunday club run in nearly two months. Nice to get back out, and it was funny looking over at the trails as we ran up the Khyber. You could still clearly see where so many of us made mince of the ground yesterday

Best week's running in some time.

Next

I've decided to bite the bullet and take on my hardest race yet, as next Sunday I'm heading west for the National Masters XC. Yesterday's race has left me feeling more confident that I won't be travelling all the way over there to fight it out for last place. There's another NIA Live meet on Thursday, but I'm not sure if I want to race 800/1500 indoor three days before "The Nats" :pac: Thanks for reading! J.

Quick update...

Mon 5/2 - 6.05 miles @8:32/mi

Continuing with the theme of trying to go the extra mile/extra laps. Not as easy as it sounds, especially with a sizeable amount of food and drink having been put away on Sunday, between watching Liverpool v Spurs (:mad:) and the Super Bowl.
On my second Carpenterstown lap, I was wondering was I mad to even try this today, when who do I bump into only AMK out walking the dog. Better finish it out so Having a bit of daylight left, I took in two laps of Porterstown, which was far busier than I expected, especially as every person had dogs with them. Tough going, but I felt better having got out and done it.

Tue 6/2 - Work/college

Since the last update, I've got some news which has led to me deciding that I'll have to skip the Nats this time. Nothing sinister, just have to reprioritise for a while. Disappointing, but there isn't a whole pile that I can do about it. I checked the NIA site this morning, to see if there were any spots left in the 800s tomorrow night. Of course they're all gone :pac: Oh well. Looks like parkrun's back on the agenda for this weekend See ye later. J.

Wed 7/2 - 5.34 miles @8:32/mi

I decided to go three times clockwise "for a change".

Thu 8/2 - 4.92 miles @8:28/mi

(Un)fortunately, I didn't have enough time to get up to Abbotstown and race D around 800 indoors. First ever world record set at the venue apparently. Instead, I trundled around D15, with a huge amount of stops at roundabouts, traffic lights etc en route.

Fri 9/2 - Rest

Sat 10/2 - Porterstown parkrun

On a wet and windy morning, I was thinking on the way up that I might have a shot at my now very old parkrun PB of 20:36, which was an actual PB on the grand occasion of my 50th parkrun in May 2016. Long story short, once the run got started, it soon became clear that there was no chance of even this happening. The lads I had in mind to follow pulled well clear of me on the first lap, and for the second and third laps, it was primarily a case of just getting the thing finished. 14th place in 21:45, second age cat. One closer to the century, I suppose :rolleyes:

Sun 11/2 - National Masters XC Club running, Phoenix Park

Instead of going to the Nats, I joined up with clubmates for Sunday running. Three of us were together for my first stint, where I got dropped on the Khyber and ended up running the last mile into a headwind on my own. 5.05 miles@7:59/mi.

Four more joined us for another stint about five minutes later. This actually turned out worse. Almost from the beginning I was struggling to hang on, apart from the downhill to the Glen Pond where I briefly caught up and led the group. The last two miles were mostly ran alone, and they were painful - up the Acres Road and back into the Chesterfield Avenue breeze.

Overall for the second stint, 4.76 miles @8:26/mi, although the variances were horrific. One of those days where I just had no energy, no matter what I tried. When I got home, I felt like I could have slept for a month. I can only imagine how the trip West would have turned out! 30.8 miles for the week, which is actually my highest since last October. Something positive to report at the end of it all Thanks for reading! J.